


Another Time, Another Place

by OnTheFritz



Category: Cats - Andrew Lloyd Webber, Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats - T. S. Eliot
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer are Protectors in training, interesting thoughts of what would happen if Macavity was a good guy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-14
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-21 18:48:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30026244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OnTheFritz/pseuds/OnTheFritz
Summary: Demeter and Pouncival find themselves in an alternate version of the junkyard where things are not what they appear.Just a little thing I wrote based on ideas by a couple of very smart friends. Probably won't continue it but you never know!
Comments: 4
Kudos: 15





	Another Time, Another Place

Despite being in a junkyard with endless places to perch and lounge it was still nearly impossible to find somewhere private to stargaze. Every place Demeter found was already occupied or, if it was vacant, it was because it wasn’t an ideal spot in the first place.

Her quest took her to the outskirts of the junkyard to one of the tallest towers of junk. It took her a while to climb to the top but she was rewarded by the sight of a rocking chair placed at the perfect angle to look at the sky above. Unfortunately this place was also occupied, but at this point she was tired and ready for a rest, so it looked like she was going to have a stargazing partner.

“Mind if I join you?” Demeter asked.

“Oh, yeah, sure.” Pounce wiggled over to make room. “Sorry. Usually I’m here by myself.”

“It’s no problem.” Demeter affectionately patted him on the head.

“So why are you up here?”

“Just… needed a moment to breathe and look up at the stars.” She replied.

“Ah.”

“Why are you up here?”

“I come up here a lot. Dunno why. Just like it here.”

“That’s fair enough.”

Together they huddled for warmth under the clear night sky. It was a beautiful view and not one that the two of them normally shared.

“’s a lot of stars.” Pounce muttered. “Kinda makes you wonder just how big it really is.”

“It does, doesn’t it? Cassandra was telling me about some of the constellations.” Demeter gazed upwards. “It’s amazing just how many there are.”

“Huh. Just looks like dots in the sky to me.” Pounce fidgeted a little. The chair wobbled underneath them.

“You do have to use your imagination a little.” Demeter pet his back to settle him.

“I dunno. Still looks like dots in the sky that someone just decided to add up and make up stories about.”

“Well, if you put it that way, yes, I suppose that really is what constellations are.” Demeter laughed. “But don’t let Cassandra hear you say that.”

“Yeah, I’ll keep that to myself.” Pounce leaned up against her again. “Hey, um, I got a question.”

“Yes?”

“Um, don’t get upset, but… well, I’ve been thinking about it for a while and I dunno when else it’ll just be us hanging out.”

“I promise I won’t be upset.”

“Okay. Well, uh, so I noticed that you and, um… you and Macavity seem to kinda be connected.” Pounce’s voice was quiet. “Especially after what happened at the ball. Um, I know it’s not really my business but, well, I was just wondering.”

Demeter froze at the name. Just a name alone could inspire so much fear and anxiety and invoke an involuntary reaction. Even now, with the tribe under the watchful eye of Munkustrap, she still felt that fear. It would be something that would haunt her for many years to come.

Pounce wiggled away and gave her a regretful look. The chair rocked beneath them.

“I’m sorry, I know it’s not a great thing to ask you about, I just was wondering-”

“No, Pounce, it’s just-”

“Aw man, I just went and ruined it, didn’t I, Tumble told me not to ask you and I went and did anyways.” The rocking chair was really starting to move underneath them.

“Pounce, you have to stop moving, we’re going to fall-” Demeter dug her claws into the chair.

It was too late. With a terrifying lurch the chair slid forward off the pile, sending them both falling into the darkness below.

As expected Demeter landed on her feet. What was not expected was how short of a drop it was. The two of them had been very high up, and such a fall should have been more consequential.

“Aaargh!” Suddenly Demeter was knocked to the ground by a screaming ball of fur.

The two of them lay still in the dirt, both taking a minute to collect themselves. The cat on top of her seemed to be in no hurry to go anywhere, a fact that Demeter was not enthusiastic about.

“Pounce, please get off of me.”

“Oh, sorry, just a sec, normally I land better.” The tom scrambled to his feet. “This is embarrassing.”

“I should certainly hope so.” Demeter sniffed the air. “Hmm. Something’s not right.”

“Hey, no need for that, I bathed recently.” Pounce protested.

“No, it’s not you. Something smells off.”

“Like what?”

Demeter shook her head. “I don’t know yet but I’d feel more comfortable if we went to Munkustrap about it.”

“Right.” Pounce helped her to her feet. “You… uh, you don’t think it might be related to a certain somebody, do you?”

“Who?”

“You know, that one guy… the one you’re like, super good at tracking.”

“Macavity?”

“Yeah.”

“It’s alright if you say his name around me.” Demeter shook the dirt off of herself. “It’s not always Macavity.”

“But every time you notice something weird you say it’s him.”

“That’s because it usually is. But not always.”

“Huh.” Pounce wrinkled his nose up at the pile of junk they had fallen off of. “That’s weird.”

“What?”

“This is a different pile of junk. Not the one we fell off of.”

“How could it be different? And how can you tell?”

“Listen, I know my piles of junk. I know what piles of junk I’ve fallen off of. We were sitting on a rocking chair and now it’s gone and it’s not smashed into pieces on the ground where we landed, so unless it just disappeared we’re not in the same place where we fell.”

“That is incredibly specific.”

“Hey, you got your Macavity senses, I got my junk senses.”

Demeter respectfully kept quiet at the comment, electing to instead study the area a little more closely. Nothing seemed out of the place, at least not immediately so, but there was a certain scent in the air that was leaving her decidedly unsettled.

“Let’s go find Munkustrap.” She repeated.

“Yeah, okay.” Pounce strolled out into the middle of the clearing. “Wonder where everyone else is- ACK!”

Pounce’s question turned into a screech as a striped blur darted out and tackled him to the ground, expertly pinning his arms to his back and shoving his face into the dirt. Automatically Demeter hid in the shadows.

“Gotcha!” Pounce’s attacker crowed. “Thought you could just sneak on in here without so much as a how do you do, that’s just rude.”

“Get off!” Pounce did his best to flail but was clearly outmatched.

Demeter paused in her rescue attempt as another cat appeared. Not because she was afraid of being outmatched, but because she couldn’t believe who was attacking Pounce.

“Hey, Teaze, good catch. Wouldn’t do any good to let anyone get through while we’re on watch.” Mungojerrie crouched down and ruffled the top of Pounce’s head. “What’s your name little fella?”

“Mmgph.”

“Here, help me with him, got a feelin’ he might try to scamper off as soon as I get up.” Rumpleteazer said. The two of them swiftly pulled Pounce to his feet and held him still before he could fight back.

“What the hell? How’d you guys get so good at this?” Pounce sneezed dirt out of his nose.

“Well, thank you, we’ve been trainin’ a lot.” Jerrie grinned.

“You’ll have to give your regards to our dear Protector.” Teazer added.

“Oh hey, that actually works out because me and-” Pounce paused, eyes darting over to where Demeter was hiding. Quickly he coughed and continued, immediately staring at the ground. “Um, because I’m looking for him.”

Demeter held her breath. Thankfully neither of Pounce’s captors had noticed the slip, both too preoccupied with their current achievement of capturing Pounce before he could cause trouble. Both still had a tight grip on him.

“Well come along then.” Teazer pulled on his arm. “Normally he’s not too picky about strangers wantin’ to join the tribe but there are proper ways to go about it. Sneakin’ in isn’t the best way to make a good impression.”

“You guys sneak all the time!” Pounce dug in his heels. “You’re both criminals!”

“Excuse us.” Jerrie actually looked offended as he easily hauled Pounce along. “We are not criminals. We are Protectors in trainin’, thank you very much.”

“It would be a crime to sully our stellar reputation.” Teazer remarked.

“What?” Pounce glanced over his shoulder and sent a pleading look to Demeter, who still stayed out of sight.

“Come on, quit stallin’ and let’s get goin’.” Jerrie’s cheerful voice echoed through the junkyard as the three disappeared from sight.

Demeter followed as quietly as she could. Not that she needed to worry since the three of them were making enough of a racket to cover up any sounds she made. Although she did not quite know the reason she kept to the shadows, doing her best to stay out of sight, and did not reveal herself. Her instincts were screaming at her to stay hidden for now.

*****

“You guys suck.” Pounce muttered. “My arms are gonna fall off. My back is itchy. Are we there yet?”

To his disappointment neither Jerrie nor Teazer took pity on him or grew annoyed at his complaints. Usually one of those tricks worked.

“Where are we going?” He whined. “We’ve been walking all night.”

“It’s been five minutes.” Teazer told him.

“Yeah, well, feels like an eternity.”

It was still late enough that the majority of the tribe were off sleeping or doing their own thing, but one particular silver tabby came out to see what all the fuss was about.

“Hey, Munk, look what we got!” Teazer beamed.

“Munk! Tell them to stop being butts and let me go!” Pounce yelled. “It wasn’t funny to start and it’s getting real old now!”

Munkustrap stared at him for a moment, carefully taking in the sight, then smiled warmly.

“Well done you two, you’re really improving.” The silver tom praised Pounce’s captors.

“Thanks Munk!” Jerrie saluted. “Real proud of this catch.”

“What?” Pounce froze. “You mean you’re happy these guys got me?”

“Well, I wouldn’t call it happy, but we do have rules for a reason.” Munk told him. “And there are consequences for breaking them.”

“You can make a case for yourself when we take you to… well, uh, who do we take him to?” Teazer asked. “This is the first intruder we’ve caught.”

Munk gave her a familiar long suffering look.

“Right, I got it, come along.” Jerrie hauled both Pounce and Teazer with him. “Good to see you Munk, we’ll let you know how it goes.”

“Hold on, where are we going?” Pounce threw his head back to watch Munk shake his head and continue on his way. “I thought you were taking me to Munk!”

“Why would we do that?” Jerrie asked.

“Uh, ‘cause he’s the Protector?”

Both cats laughed.

“Munk? The Protector?” Teazer asked. “You’ve got some funny ideas.”

“Yeah, can you imagine?” Jerrie said. “Dunno where you’re coming up with this stuff but please, keep it comin’.”

“If Munk’s not the Protector then who is?” Pounce asked, suddenly much more meek than before.

“Don’t you worry, you’re about to meet him!” Jerrie brought them to a halt at the base of the tire. “Hey, Mac, we got a prisoner for you!”

“Mac?” Pounce whispered, suddenly feeling his blood go cold.

“What is it?” A sinister voice purred as a familiar face rose into view.

It was a face that brought fear to the very hearts of those who gazed upon it, a face that was the absolutely last cat Pounce expected or ever wanted to see. For a moment Pounce felt tiny and alone, completely exposed and vulnerable in the face of the one cat that the Jellicles feared most. This was a cat that took down Munkustrap, kidnapped Deuteronomy, tried to kidnap Demeter, and left them all in shambles during the most important night of the year. It had taken the whole tribe to fight him off and now it was just Pounce left to his own devices with Demeter maybe hiding somewhere in the shadows.

“Hello.” Macavity said, leaping off of the tire and landing silently in front of them. “I am Macavity. I don’t believe I’ve seen you around here before.”

Pounce shivered. It was over. He was dead.

“He was just wanderin’ around like he owned the place.” Teazer said. “No regards for the proper order of things.”

“I’m- I- I didn’t-” Pounce stammered, trying to step back but still held tightly by his captors.

“Please.” Macavity held up a paw. “You don’t need to say anything.”

Oh, he was very dead now. Pounce closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable.

“Let him go.”

“Whu?” Pounce cracked an eye open.

“But what if he runs off?” Jerrie asked.

“He won’t.” Macavity continued to stare.

“You’re the boss.” Both cats released their hold.

Pounce rubbed feeling back into his arms, bouncing up and down on the balls of his feet. It was now or never. If he was going to live he’d have to run. But where to?

“See, he’s not going to-” Macavity’s declaration was interrupted as Pounce turned tail and ran as fast as his legs could carry him.

The destination wasn’t important. Pounce could figure that out later. For now he just needed to find Demeter and get the hell out of there.


End file.
